A Fine Balance

Author – Rohinton Mistry

Genre – Historical drama

Publisher – Vintage International

Rating – 5/5

A book on the search for dignity and happiness, fate and loss. Sounds morose?.... the telling has been dealt with such poignancy, poise, pride and prose that the tale flows through the pages.

Set in Mumbai  “A Fine Balance” follows the lives of four people from different walks of life looking at bettering their lot. The Book begins with the meeting of two tailors, Ishwar Darji, Omprakash Darji come looking for work and Maneck Kohlah, a student come looking for a bright future in the city of dreams, Mumbai. Their lives are inextricably joined with Dina Dayal, a middle aged widow trying hard to preserve her independence. She takes in Maneck as her paying guest and the two tailors in her employment to fulfil orders of a textile export house.

The tale spills effortlessly between the past and the present; Ishwar and Om’s, filled with oppression of the higher castes that destroyed their family because they dared to change their profession from cobblers to tailors and better their social standing.  Of Maneck of the paradise hills, sprawling property  and loving family destroyed first by the partition line which rendered most of their property on the wrong side of the border and then by the influx of modernisation. Of Dina Dayal’s oppression by her brother – Nusswan, after the death of her father and her struggle to stay independent after her husband’s death.

The Emergency brings all of them under one roof – Dina Dayal’s. Slowly mistrust, social and economic barriers are replaced by empathy and a semblance of a family.  The four find the love and laughter that has been missing from their lives for so long and dare to start dreaming again.

While Manek heads for a ‘secure’ future in the Middle East, Omprakash and Ishwar get the worst of upper class prejudice and inhuman Government policies during the Emergency. They are evacuated from their shanty, then sold to a labour camp, then made to go through vasectomy from which one emerges castrated and the other with an amputated leg. Dina Dayal looses her contract with the textile company and has to face the indignity of moving in again with her brother.

 However the latter three remain in touch and Dina keeps the defiance of her brother alive by offering tea to Omprakash and Ishwar who are now beggars in cups meant for Nusswan and his wife.

However it is Manek who has lead a comparatively sheltered life who gets disheartened by events and takes his life.

Rohinton Mistry spins a larger than life, multi starrer, mega budget tale which is still simple, heart wrenching, warm and humane in it’s telling.